A place to share books, music, techniques, and all things related to bilingual storytime!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Spanish Books for Every Child Ready to Read

I am a big fan of the Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) parent education initiative, developed by the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC). As a Children's Librarian, I presented many ECRR workshops for parents in both English and Spanish. As a consultant, one of the services I offer is helping libraries offer ECRR workshops to Spanish-speaking parents in their service area. One of the reasons why I love ECRR so much is because it is a data-supported model which accomplishes multiple goals at once. This is particularly true as it is offered to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities. Not only does it reach early literacy goals by teaching and empowering parents as the first teachers of their children, it also works as an outreach tool to form new relationships between libraries and Latino community organizations and even individual families. I am a huge advocate of the ECRR initiative and I am thrilled that the updated version will soon be available in a Spanish as well, Cada niño listo para leer.

In order to support librarians and library staff offering ECRR workshops to Spanish-speaking families, I thought I would share some of my favorite Spanish and bilingual books that support early literacy development. These are books that are fun to share with children, are wonderful to incorporate into storytimes, and make great examples for sharing with parents during ECRR workshops.

Let's Eat! / ¡A comer! by Pat Mora
A sweet story in the "My Family / Mi Familia" series about the joy of sharing a meal together as a family. The entire series is highly recommended; other titles are Wiggling Pockets / Los bosillos saltarines and Sweet Dreams / Dulces sueños.

Un pez muy divertido by Jack Tickle
One of several Spanish pop-up books in the "Libros Cu-cu Sorpresa" series. Spanish pop-ups can be difficult to find for purchase; it's really fun to be able to share them with kids in storytime or at a workshop.

Arroz con leche / Rice Pudding by Jorge Argueta
One of several bilingual cooking poem stories. The stories are actually recipes told in poem form, which makes them excellent for acting out and talking about what happens first, middle and last. Others are Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup and Guacamole.
What did I miss? This is just a sample; there are many more great Spanish and bilingual books that promote early literacy skill development and are fun to share with kids. If one that you love is not on this list, please leave a comment and share it with us!